Review of Princeton Master in Finance program

[QuantNet]

Place holder for discussion

 

[Garima Singh Chandel]

Does anybody know what kind of questions are typically asked in the interview for the final round decision for the MFin program?

 

[GoIllini]

Relax. They're typically non-technical questions. Wendell is trying to get a sense of who you are, what you are going for with your career, that kind of stuff.

Get some exercise the night before.

 

[Garima Singh Chandel]

Thanks for the info! I already had my interview, though. It was pretty generic though...not very technical. Lots of questions about my background, why finance, why princeton kind of things.

 

[Dataminer]

Thanks for the info! I already had my interview, though. It was pretty generic though...not very technical. Lots of questions about my background, why finance, why princeton kind of things.

did you get the sense that they are still sending out interview requests? Did they mention how many are being interviewed?

 

[Garima Singh Chandel]

Umm...I have no idea whether they are still sending out interview invites or not. Although, I think they are interviewing around 100 or so candidates, and the interviews will run throughout the month.

 

[GoIllini]

Interview requests IIRC are typically sent about a week in advance of the interview. Looking at the scheduling history on QuantNet, I see that they went as late as Jan 23rd in prior years. This may mean that there could be another week or so of interview invites.

I don't think I'm going to bug Wendell about this (she is probably extremely busy right now between interviews and recruiting), but if she mentions something offhand about her interview schedule, I'll share that.

That said, long-distance telephone calls in the US are quite cheap these days and it is unlikely that a phone call inquiring about the interview schedule would be traced back to a given applicant. For the paranoid, it would be even less likely if the phone call were made from a payphone or other public telephone. The worst case would be that Karen and Melanie hang up on you; I believe they are the ones who field questions from applicants and also schedule interviews for Wendell.

 

[Rvm]

Does anyone know when will Princeton send out the results this year? Based on previous tracker information last year they gave it out on a Saturday, the year before on Monday..
@Garima Singh Chandel

 

[seanchen]

What a stressful time!

 

[GoIllini]

So, if it's any comfort, this is a competence-based field. There are some exceptions to the rule, but where you go to school is much less important than your work ethic, intelligence, and competence. And where you land out of grad school is much more important than where you land for grad school.

Don't believe me? I worked on Wall Street for five years with a state school on my resume. It would have worked against me if I were working on investment banking deals, but I was a good fit for quant work. As long as you learn the material, branding is much less important for quants than it is for most other people.

So, if it's possible, try not to get too worked up about the outcome. Your future self has too much to worry about with building volatility surfaces or building a support vector machine learning program to generate some pricing signal to be worried about which school you went to. It may feel like cold comfort now, but in five years, you'll agree with my claim that where you go to grad school does not matter that much if you want to be a quant.

 

[Garima Singh Chandel]

@Rvm : I do not have an exact idea of the dates when Priceton will send out the results. But I had asked Wendell Collins after the interview about the same, and she said somewhere between the second and third weeks of February. Keeping fingers crossed!

 

[KareemK]

Looks like someone got in (check tracker). Anyone else hear anything?

 

[My American Dream]

Congrats to the person who got in Princeton!!!

I have a question, will Princeton send out rejection/AD around the same time or AD first and rejection later?

 

[Quantacct]

According to last year's tracker a bunch came on the same day

 

[My American Dream]

I think rejection letters usually come later, much later.

Yeah, I just checked the tracker, it seems most people got admitted on 2/13 last year

 

[Rvm]

@Rvm : I do not have an exact idea of the dates when Priceton will send out the results. But I had asked Wendell Collins after the interview about the same, and she said somewhere between the second and third weeks of February. Keeping fingers crossed!

Thank you and good luck to all.

 

[GoIllini]

Congrats to the person who got in Princeton!!!

I have a question, will Princeton send out rejection/AD around the same time or AD first and rejection later?

I'm trying to remember, but I think it starts with a direct, informal phone call or email from Wendell. Formal notice occurs a day or two later for everyone. If you got an interview, I wouldn't read any disappointment into this yet. This would be a very early response date and there is only one entry in the tracker.

Whoever it is, congrats.

 

[Quantacct]

I'm trying to remember, but I think it starts with a direct, informal phone call or email from Wendell. Formal notice occurs a day or two later for everyone. If you got an interview, I wouldn't read any disappointment into this yet. This would be a very early response date and there is only one entry in the tracker.

Whoever it is, congrats.

Thank you. In terms of formal notification, is that also through email? Or through snail mail?

 

[GoIllini]

Ummm, they email you first. If you get an admit, they snail mail you a decision form due back April 15th IIRC.

 

[My American Dream]

wow two more people got admitted!!